June 5, 1999

Nature Creates Freaks

It's easy to distrust rock star rage, especially when it's making bucks for The Man. The trouble is, genuine anger is rarely honed enough to make for listenable music..

8 / 10 /img/CayNatureCreates1099.jpg It's easy to distrust rock star rage, especially when it's making bucks for The Man. The trouble is, genuine anger is rarely honed enough to make for listenable music. And that's why Cay matter.

A four-piece Camden-based noise machine fronted by venomous Dutch singer Anet Mook, Cay arrive having survived a furious A&R feeding frenzy at last year's In The City and getting signed despite sounding like the devil's own daughter gargling razor blades over the rawest hardcore. The risk was always going to be that their major label debut would be an over-produced shadow of their molten live sound. It isn't.

When it really burns, like on 'Hooked On That', this is the sound of Anet Mook's soul turned inside out, her rasp fuelled by whisky and backed by massive punk chords. Even the obligatory moments of introspection (like 'Skool') crackle with tension. It's rarely straightforward either, the guitars skewed and dirty like Robert Fripp inventing Sonic Youth.

They'll hate the comparison, but this is the album 'Celebrity Skin' should have been. It's the most genuinely angry album you'll hear this year.